Main Street Reports to Town Trustees – January 2019

SUBJECT: Wellington Main Streets Program presentation to the Town Trustees and Mayor from Wellington Main Streets Program Executive Director Annie Lindgren

Summary:

The Wellington Main Streets Program provides monthly updates to the Town Trustees regarding on-going projects, organizational updates, events, and future plans.

Item 1:Consultation Services provided through DOLA

Market Leakage Analysis and Opportunity Assessment is complete, and a meeting will be scheduled to present the results. This may occur on February 13th. Will let the Trustees know the exact date. We had good participation with the surveys, and collected helpful information on how to better support the downtown businesses, what our business environment consists of, and what types of businesses we should be attracting.

Consultation service to help with the DDA process. There are consultation services available through DOLA that can help us navigate the DDA process start to finish, free of charge due to our status as a Main Street Program. A requirement to engaging in this service will be to identify the role of the Main Streets Program in the DDA.

Board Retreat: Sherly Trent, a DOLA funded consultant, did a staff retreat with the board on January 9th. We discussed the goals for the program moving forward, and how we can best serve the needs of the community. A follow up meeting is scheduled for discussions to continue as we iron out our work plan.

Item 2:Current projects

Promotional Video for Downtown Wellington project: WCMSP is working with the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and the Town of Wellington on a project to make a promotional video for Wellington, showcasing the community highlights, businesses, housing options, and community activities. The videos will be available to share on various town organizations’ websites. This project is still in progress, and was delayed due to discussion regarding the script.

Banner Program: The new Banners were installed the first week of January. We were unable to get additional sites approved due to Xcel guidelines regarding the poles. It seems that all available poles with in the Main Streets’s district are being utilized. We are adding one new location in the Dynamic Image parking lot. We will continue to brainstorm creative solutions for beautification efforts that include 1st and 6th

Christmas Decorations for 2018: WCMSP is worked with the Kiwanis and the Town of Wellington to do more upgrades on Christmas Decorations for 2018. We got decorations for the entryway signs, the flower planters, and for the skate park fence. Decorations were installed the week of November 19th, and were taken down early January. We will leave the flower planter décor out until spring.

Partnership with North Forty News to get the word out about downtown Wellington: We have a monthly page in the North Forty News for an article from the Main Streets Program. Check out this month’s article on downtown Wellington, and its growth and activity in the past 5 years. Next month’s article will be about the history of Wellington.

Business Lighting contest: Done in conjunction with the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce. Encouraging downtown businesses to decorate for the holiday. We had 5 entries this year, and winners were Points West Bank, Kinzli Real Estate, Smelker’s Auction, and T-Bar Inn.

New membership program: It is membership renewal time, and information regarding the new membership program were mailed and emailed out to current and previous supporters of the Main Streets Program. We have a goal to increase membership in 2019, and the ability for members to enroll through our new website has made it easier than ever to join.

Mural project: We found a mural artist to do the mural on the brick building just east of the railroad tracks that is commonly referred to as the lumberyard building. This mural will embrace Wellington’s history through an image of the original train depot building, and through image of beet farming. It will cover the entire north side of the building, and will wrap around the west side as well. This will be funded through grant, fundraising efforts, and partnership with the building owner. Work on this may begin within the next few months. There will be a barrier hiding view of the building while the artist is working. We are also working on some other mural projects around town.

Safer crosswalks for downtown Wellington: Board member Vincent Gentry is looking in to options for funding for getting a traffic study done, which is the first step in getting a push button crosswalk approved by CDOT for intersections with high pedestrian traffic.

Item 4: Events

.5k Fun Run put on by Old Colorado Brewing Company and Fitness1 scheduled for April 6th from 11:00am-2:00p. This event will start and finish at OCBC, and will include a walk/stroll/run around the 3 blocks east and south of OCBC. Proceeds will go to benefit the Wellington Main Streets Program downtown beautification efforts.

2019 Wellington Brewfest: Put on by Old Colorado Brewing Company, Soul Squared, and Cantina Liquor, as a benefit for the Wellington Co Main Streets Program. The event will take place in Centennial Park on June 1st, from 12:00p-6:00pm. We would like to expand the boundaries for the event this year, to allow for more breweries (16 total) and attendees (up to 500). There will be food trucks and live music. More details to come. Proceeds go to support downtown beautification efforts and promotion of downtown Wellington.

Well-O-Rama: August 17th in Centennial Park. This is a new event based on an old event that started in the 60’s with the paving of Cleveland Ave, and it will take place of the Summer Concert Series. It will be an all day music event with fun family friendly activities and other activities with an emphasis on supporting local businesses. This will be the only event (other than annual dinner, beautification project roll out events, and events associated with consultation services) that is hosted by the Main Streets Programs. All other events are partnerships with other organizations. More details to come.

Item 3: Other:

Board and officer changes: The board decided on a smaller board size of 8. Ed Cannon has joined as the liaison from the town. Brian Graves retained position as President, Vincent Gentry is our new Vice President, Sandra Wolf is Treasurer, and Kate Clifford is our Secretary. The remaining board members are Tracey Jensen, Curtis Smelker, Linda Kinzli, and Karin Chapman.